When a user makes a purchase at a retail location using a smart transaction card, the specific account and payment processing network used is not necessarily known in advance. For example, with smart cards employing the EMV standard, any one of multiple cardholder accounts representing different payment vehicles (for example, credit card, debit card, etc.) may be accessed when using one card. The EMV standard defines the interaction between terminal and card at the physical, electrical, data and payment application levels. An EMV card may be a contact card requiring physical mating of electrical connectors on the card and a terminal, or may be a contactless card employing wireless signals, such as NFC (near field communications), to communicate with terminal. EMV standards are developed and maintained by EMVCo, and can be found at www.emvco.com.
A merchant terminal and an EMV smart card are programmed in advance with application identifiers (AIDs) that each identify a payment application (payment functions implemented in software code that are stored on the card) and also identify data or protocols associated with a payment vehicle, such as account type, card association/brand (e.g., VISA®, MASTERCARD®, DISCOVER®), and the payment processing network (e.g., STAR®, CIRRUS®, NYCE®, PULSE®). For example, an AID is set up by each payment network for transactions to be processed over that network. The payment network provides the AID to each merchant acquirer (merchant payment processor) and to each card issuer that might use the payment network. The merchant acquirer programs AIDs (received from one or more payment networks) into a payment processing system at the merchant POS terminal (e.g, a card reader system at the merchant POS terminal) in order to establish a list of AIDs (and corresponding payment applications) used by that merchant and its merchant acquirer. Likewise, a card issuer may program an EMV card in advance with a list of AIDs that are established by the card issuer. When an EMV card is introduced at a terminal, the terminal retrieves the list of AIDs stored on the card and compares that list to the list of AIDs established by the merchant acquirer and stored at the merchant terminal. Those AIDs that are common to both lists are placed in a “candidate list” which can be displayed to the customer for selection. Systems for determining a “candidate list” of AIDs for selection by a customer using an EMV smart card to conduct a transaction are known and are described, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 8,458,092, issued to Ward at al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,96,131, issued to von Beheren et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,31,810, issued to Liue et al, and U.S. Pat. No. 7,103,575, issued to Linehan, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
However, current EMV standards do not make it feasible for the merchant to pick the final AID used for processing payment. In some cases the application and payment vehicle used may have consequences to the merchant, such as higher interchange fees. Thus it would be desirable for the merchant to have control over the application and payment vehicle used for a EMV card transaction conducted at the merchant POS terminal.